As is well known in the art, an internal combustion engine is a machine for converting heat energy into mechanical work. In an internal combustion engine, a fuel-air mixture that has been introduced into a combustion chamber is compressed as a piston slides within the chamber. A high voltage for ignition is applied to a spark plug installed in the combustion chamber to generate an electric spark to ignite the fuel-air mixture. The resulting combustion pushes the piston downwardly within the chamber, thereby producing a force that is convertible to a rotary output.
Such internal combustion engines have a variety of problems. First, because of the multitude of moving parts, such engines are costly to assemble. Further, because of the moving parts, such engines are subjected to a shortened useful life due to frictional wear between the moving parts. Further still, because of the multiple parts, such engines are heavy. Further yet, previously developed internal combustion engines do not sufficiently harness all available energy contained in exhaust gases prior to discharge of the exhaust gases to the environment, thereby decreasing efficiency. Additionally, previously developed engines base the opening of a waste gate valve on back pressure alone, and not upon a power setting of the engine or the RPM of the engine, thereby decreasing the effectiveness of the waste gate valve. Further still, previously developed internal combustion engines do not direct injected fuel upon the exhaust valves, thereby leading to premature failure of the exhaust valve and/or increased cost expended in designing and cooling the exhaust valve. In addition, previously developed internal combustion engines do not permit the locating of a spark plug or injector in the pistons of the engine, thereby limiting the placement of these devices to potentially less desirable locations.
Thus, there exists a need for an internal combustion engine that not only produces a high power-to-weight ratio, but is also economical to manufacture, has a high degree of reliability, has fewer moving parts than the reciprocating engines currently available, and is efficient.